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Teaching Teens To Cook May Be Improving This Neighborhood

Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
Tara Calligan
/
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

The Pine Manor Improvement Association’s annual teen culinary class recently graduated 8 students. The three week course teaches teens cooking basics and the importance of sustainable farming by using the community’s own garden.

Each student gets a cookbook and a set of cooking utensils to sharpen their new skills.

The Pine Manor Improvement Association’s culinary classes are the brainchild of Florida Gulf Coast University professor Chef James Fraser.

He founded ICARE – or The Institute for Culinary Awareness Research & Education. Fraser recognized a desperate need in Pine Manor, which is considered a food desert, an area with limited or no access to fresh, healthy and affordable foods.

“I don’t know if I so much chose Pine Manor as much as Pine Manor perhaps chose me,” said Fraser. “They were looking for a program to run, and I was looking for a place to run my program.”

mission is to educate people about where their food comes from through the use an 11,000 square foot community garden, and how to turn that produce into nutritional and delicious meals.   

Katia Charles, Pine Manor Association Kids Counselor picks produce in the Community Garden.
Credit Tara Calligan
/
The Florida Channel
Katia Charles, Pine Manor Association Kids Counselor picks produce in the Community Garden.

“My feel is that these students have had maybe a new perspective, and maybe a better way to appreciate or better way to understand the things that are in front of them,” said Fraser. “You don’t have to have soda pop. You don’t have to have convenient-style food. You have options, and you’re in control of those options, and you can direct and manipulate the food choices you make to your benefit.”

Instructing the teen summer class is Chef Pyro Rodriguez. He owns Pyro’s Creations in Naples. The week before graduation is pizza day. Rodriguez teaches the teens how to make dough from scratch. 

Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
Credit Tara Calligan
/
The Florida Channel

“What is that called? What are we doing now?” Rodriguez asked.

“Kneading,” the class said in unison.

“Why do we knead things?” he asked.  “To activate the gluten in it.”

This is his first time teaching teens how to cook. Rodriguez makes cooking fun and interesting using foods like pizza, chicken nuggets and desserts from scratch, while using various herbs and produce from the garden outside. He said he does it to give back.

“I wish I would have had it when I was growing up,” said Rodriguez.

Rodriguez said the biggest challenge so far is keeping the kids focused and leaving their problems at the door. 

16-year-old Skylar Smith has a big smile on her face. Her long, brown hair is pulled back into a ponytail. She’s finally wearing the coveted chef’s jacket signifying her status as a graduate.  

Skylar’s mom, Dianne Smith, can barely speak through her tears awaiting her daughter’s graduation.

“It lets them see that there something outside of their regular home and advance,” said Smith. “To live inside of a dark hole, they have a chance to see that’s there’s something else out there, and that being a cook isn’t a bad thing. It can be something that’s a wonderful thing. Where they can help their community, help the city or wherever they go. It’s something they will always use, whether it’s for their own family or for the good of their community.”

Pine Manor Improvement Association Community Coordinator Shari Clark helps run the community garden. She said programs like this help the at-risk community lower its crime rate.

The Lee County Sheriff’s Office reports cases of simple assault have dropped 71 percent and residential burglary reports have dropped 85 since 2012. Over the past three years, the total number of reported crimes in Pine Manor have dropped 72 percent.

“This community center is a safe place for kids,” said Clark. “It’s somewhere they can go, and they’re not hanging out on the streets and getting into trouble.”

The big test is what the teens do after finishing this program. But at the graduation ceremony, the students show off their cooking expertise.

They make pasta from scratch and work in stations during a buffet-style lunch service for their guests.

Skyler Smith said it went off without a hitch.   

Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
Credit Tara Calligan
/
The Florida Channel

“Actually, it went pretty fine with all the people we had,” said Smith. “It was nice and mellow and we got everything done nice and quick. I thought they thought it was fabulous.”

Chef Fraser said the impact this program is having on Pine Manor is obvious.

“Ultimately you see the type of change at graduation,” said Fraser. “Where the emotion comes through and the realization of they’ve just done something great or something unusual or something that not everybody has done. And that’s going to set them apart today and hopefully in the future.”

Fraser’s hope for ICARE is to make it an affordable alternative to traditional culinary school.

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Amy Tardif is WGCU’s FM Station Manager and News Director. She oversees a staff of 10 full and part-time people and interns in news, production and the radio reading service. Her program Lucia's Letter on human trafficking received a coveted Peabody Award, an Edward R. Murrow Award, a gold medal from the New York Festivals and 1 st place for Best Documentary from the Public Radio News Directors Inc. She was the first woman in radio to Chair RTDNA, having previously served as Chair-Elect and the Region 13 representative on its Board of Directors for which she helped write an e-book on plagiarism and fabrication. She also serves on the FPBS Board of Directors and served on the PRNDI Board of Directors from 2007 -2012. Tardif has been selected twice to serve as a managing editor for NPR's Next Generation Radio Project. She served on the Editorial Integrity for Public Media Project helping to write the section on employee's activities beyond their public media work. She was the producer and host of Gulf Coast Live Arts Editionfor 8 years and spent 14 years asWGCU’slocal host of NPR's Morning Edition. Amy spent five years as producer and managing editor ofWGCU-TV’sformer monthly environmental documentary programs In Focus on the Environmentand Earth Edition.Prior to joiningWGCUPublic Media in 1993, she was the spokesperson for the Fort Myers Police Department, spent 6 years reporting and anchoring for television stations in Fort Myers and Austin, Minnesota and reported forWUSFPublic Radio in Tampa. Amy has two sons in college and loves fencing, performing in local theater and horseback riding.
Tara Calligan